Totally. This is the only way to approach your backlog. If you see it as a to-do list that you must conquer, you’ll never enjoy it as much as if you treat it like a buffet to be savoured.
I’m playing Civ IV right now. I have Civ V installed, but I went back to IV. After that, I’ll probably play Alpha Protocol, which I picked up on the last Steam Sale. Go where your feelings take you!
Oh, suuuuuure, go after him for the content of his post, and not the egregious typo. You guys are slipping.
You’re mixing things here. For me it’s not guilt, but I do have a light “to do list” compulsion. It hasn’t affected my enjoyment of games in the slightest.
I don’t worry about it, but I do think about it because it’s interesting to me. How do you make a dent into a steady state or growing system like this? You probably have to leverage self-help concepts like “good is the enemy of the best.” I’m still exploring how to manage that and still get a wide historical look at PC games I missed during a long hiatus from gaming.
The problem I run into is that the games I want to play require significant time commitments. And the games I have time to play are the more casual, bite-sized ones, like Angry Birds or Peggle.
I guess I could always load up Civ, but I’m dangerously susceptible to that one-more-turn syndrome.
Actually, I agree, it’s an interesting question. Especially in the broader sense. The industry is releasing more and more games all the time, and it’s getting harder and harder to say that you’ve played everything. Does that affect your “gamer cred”?
To be honest, QT3 has really helped me. Not only in suggesting new games that I probably never would have played if I hadn’t heard about them here, but also for providing an outlet to talk about the games from my backlog that I’m playing. It makes the backlog seem fresh and new and fun. There are a lot of people who play new games as soon as they are released too, but I’m really glad that it’s standard practice here to bump an old thread for an old game, and people will actually jump in and start talking again.
This is relative too. I categorically avoid MMOs. I rarely play competitive multiplayer (and limit the total time when I do). But I play lots of RPGs and open-ended strategy games. They’re still killers even if they don’t take 200+ hours. I suppose I’m lucky to have time to play them at all.
Silver lining: strategy is dying so I’ll get through all those classics eventually!
Where were you in those years anyway? Your compound near Waco? Your arctic fortress?
Steam does let you assign genres so backlog management can exploit this. I have one called Zzzzzzzzzzz which is a) at the end of the list and b) implies snoozeworthiness, so that’s where any not-fit-for-the-collection-games end up, along with junk that Steam insists I own, like MP components or whatever.
I find avoiding titles in the same series is a good move. If you play the best Assassin’s Creed, do you really want to play the others? Maybe, or maybe just with series you find you really love. Did I really need to play Dead Space I & II or should I have replaced one of them with Risen, say.
…or Flora’s Fruit Farm. Seriously, how did that one end up in the big Eidos bundle I bought a couple of years ago that included Batman AA and the Hitman games (or maybe a different bundle, but the accompanying games were similarly “hardcore”)?
I’ve been doing this too. But you’re really missing out on Dragon Age II, Alistair.
Jokes aside, I’ve noticed that some games in my backlog are “timeless” and others become obselete when a new genre standard comes out. Say I’m interested in WW2 flight sims but not that much. Do I bother playing/collecting a generic one from mid last decade when a shiny new one will come out eventually?
It doesn’t quite work for story games and genres where the subtle differences matter to you.
I suppose I should warn you King Arthur is due both an expansion and sequel shortly…
OrfBC
1992
I didn’t think I bought that much, but huh, I did. At least it was all cheap stuff. You can copy and paste this from your account page, no need to pore over your list trying to remember.
Summer Sale Prize - Dawn of War 2: Retribution DLC
Summer Sale Prize - Magicka DLC
Light of Altair - This is really cool.
Bookworm Adventures Volume 2
Risen
The Wonderful End of the World - This is a perfectly competent Katamri clone, I don’t get the complaints.
Jamestown - BETENTACLED MARTIANS LOYAL TO THE SPANISH
Solar 2
Alien Breed: Impact - I only bought this because episode 2 was a prize and I couldn’t bear to start with the sequel…Sad, but it seems pretty decent.
Dwarfs!?
Summer Sale Prize - Alien Breed 2
Summer Sale Prize - SpaceChem DLC
The Heroes Pack
Hamiltons Great Adventure
See, I have “The Closet” where completely finished or underwhelming and uninstalled sale purchases go. Despite having several games that I could have re-installed and played to snag a summer ticket, that would mean digging through the closet and life is just too short.
Wow, I really can’t do anything to make you happy today, can I Tim? First I have the gall to post a link to the changes coming in the Witcher 2 1.3 patch and now this! When will my tyranny end? Good thing you’re here to keep me in check.
Bullying nerds? Who the hell are you to call any of us names? You are bullying though, if bullying means being a jerk for no apparent reason.
So will winners of the Wishlist Drawing be announced publicly, or is it just one of those “the winners will know, the rest of us will only know when we never hear” things?
OrfBC
1996
In the past it’s been the latter, though the winners usually are figured out or post on the Steam forums if you care.
The drawing isn’t actually until tomorrow though, if you’re trying to figure out if you’ve potentially already won or not.
Anyone else find it funny that Portal 2 is right now more expensive than the valve complete pack?
A backlog management blog, btw: http://www.wurb.com/stack/
And I do like to finish games (but mostly don’t), and there are classics I really want to have played but haven’t gotten to, and I didn’t really have access to videogaming until like 1997 but my tastes can accomodate many games dating back into the mid80s, so I’m pretty much doomed as far as ever playing -everything-, but I still want to. Oh well.
(I was not given consoles by my parents, and when we finally got a computer (1995), it was a Mac. It wasn’t until I got a hand-me-down Pentium-100 from my grandparents that I could do any serious PC gaming and it wasn’t until 1999 or so when I started working and had my own income that I could get into console gaming and build a modern PC.)
I think you’re misreading my tone towards you. My fault, sorry.
Awesome. I’m glad someone’s doing one of these. Unfortunately I don’t think it’s very useable for observers like myself. Too many words. After all, I’ve got a backlog to play too!
